AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-277
ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The
Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the activities of a
worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in
designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital
Amateur Radio satellites.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor at amsat.org
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* 2009 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting October 9-11 *
* Four Points Sheraton Hotel at the Baltimore Washington Airport *
* Details - http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2009/index.php *
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In this edition:
* AMSAT Symposium is quickly approaching
* California Satellite Demo/Presentation Schedule
* AO-51 configuration to support Scouting JOTA
* European Space Weather Week 16-20 November
* FM sats from Antartica for VK and ZL
* Satellite Shorts From All Over
* ARISS Status - 28 September 2009
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.01
AMSAT Symposium is quickly approaching
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.01
This is a reminder that the AMSAT Symposium is quickly approaching.
It takes place next weekend (9-11 OCT) at the BWI Sheraton and you're
invited!
This Symposium marks the 40th Anniversary of AMSAT and we'll be
celebrating this significant milestone along with looking forward to
the next 40 years. AMSAT members who are registered for the Symposium
are invited to a 'birthday party' for AMSAT Friday evening (including
a birthday cake). In addition, Symposium attendees will also receive
a 40th Anniversary History of AMSAT written/edited by Bill Tynan, W3XO
in their registration packets. Many of us don't know the 'story of
AMSAT', and thanks to the work of Bill Tynan, Dick Daniels, Keith
Baker and others, we've focused this year on telling AMSAT's story
through their articles in the AMSAT Journal. Bill's new book provides
significantly more detail as well as brings the reader right up to the
current year. It makes for fun reading and gives recognition to the
significant achievements over the past 40 years!
This year's "AMSAT Proceedings" has a wide assortment of papers and
this year's presentations will be both interesting and informative.
Dan Schultz, N8FGV is finalizing the "Proceedings" as this is written
and attendees will be in position to hear the presentations, discuss
the papers with the authors, and gain some insight into the future
direction of AMSAT's satellite program.
The Saturday evening Banquet will feature Martin Collins, a curator at
the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. The title of his talk is "Making
the Space Age: The First Fifty Years".
A reminder that that the AMSAT BOD meeting takes place Thursday, 8 OCT
and Friday morning, 9 OCT. This is an open meeting, though the BOD
does go into closed session briefly on Friday morning. In addition
the AMSAT Annual Meeting takes place Saturday afternoon 1530-1700
EDT. We expect to have the Annual Meeting 'online' via Echolink. I
anticipate that both the Symposium and the Annual Meeting will be an
opportunity to highlight some of the significant accomplishments that
have taken place over the last 12 months plus give some perspective on
the future direction of AMSAT.
Please consider joining us to celebrate a significant milestone for
AMSAT and build the foundation for the next 40 years! You may
register online at the AMSAT Store:
http://www.amsat-na.com/store2/SymposiumReg2009.php
73,
Barry A. Baines, WD4ASW
President-AMSAT
[ANS thanks Barry, WD4ASW, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.02
California Satellite Demo/Presentation Schedule
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.02
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.02
Clint Bradford, K6LCS, will be making
presentations and demonstrations on amateur
satellites at the following meetings around California:
October 2 - Long Beach ARC*
October 5 - WARA (Fullerton) meeting*
October 8 - EchoLink via SCARS Node 96140 5:30PM PDT
October 15 - West Coast ARC (Huntington Beach)*
October 17 - Victor Valley ARCs JOTA*
November 5 - Crest REACT (Corona)*
November 8 - QWCA Chapter 7 (Norwalk)
The (*) asterisks indicate tentative workable passes for either before
or during the presentations!
[ANS thanks Clint, K6LCS, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.03
AO-51 configuration to support Scouting JOTA
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.03
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.03
AMSAT-NA is supporting the 52nd Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) Scouting event by
dedicating AO-51 operation to the event.
For October 17th and 18th, the AO-51 QRP repeater will be allocated for JOTA
use. All users are requested to give way to JOTA stations or QSOs with JOTA
stations.
The frequencies used for this weekend will be 145.880 FM uplink, and 435.150 FM
downlink, no PL tone required. The mode change
should occur at ~00:00 UTC on the
17th (Friday evening in the US) and run for approximately 48 hours.
AMSAT wishes the Scouts good luck operating via the AO-51 satellite for the
event.
Reports of your JOTA operations should be sent to the AMSAT-BB or directly to
ko4ma at amsat.org.
Photo files up to 5 Mb total are also welcome for possible inclusion in an
upcoming AMSAT Journal article.
73, Drew KO4MA
AMSAT-NA VP Operations
[ANS thanks Ed, N8BBQ, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.04
European Space Weather Week 16-20 November
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.04
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.04
The sixth European Space Weather Week will take place in Brugge, Belgium,
from Monday 16th November to Friday 20th November 2009.
The ESWW meetings aim to bring together diverse communities working on all
elements of space weather with a strong focus on user involvement. This
years meeting will discuss recent advances in both scientific and
applications based domains and how these advances relate to user needs.
This year the space weather tutorial and one of the plenary sessions will
focus on issues relating to space weather effects on communications. With
this in mind, the programme committee has made a special arrangement for
radio hams who would like to attend the meeting.
Radio amateurs with a license to operate are also welcome to the conference
and will get a discount. Radio Amateurs are requested to send a copy of
their license to esa.conference.bureau at esa.int within one week after
registration. Registration as a Radio Amateur includes access to scientific
sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and tutorial only. The reduced fee is 50
. Attendance to the reception and conference dinner is not included. The
deadline for online registration for hams is October 19.
For more info see: http://sidc.oma.be/esww6
[ANS Neil, PA9N, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.05
FM sats from Antarctica for VK and ZL
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.05
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.05
Bill Erhardt, K7MT, will be deploying back to
McMurdo Station Antarctica Nov 15,
2009 - Feb 20, 2010. Bill reports that he will be active from KC4USV Sundays
0000 GMT on SSB. He has also received requests from Europe to come in early
around 1800 GMT on Saturdays so they can work
Antarctica. Equipment will include
a rigblaster for PSK-31 on 14.070 and CW on
14.043 if time permits. Bill is also
taking an Arrow II antenna/Kenwood TH-7 to work the FM satellites to VK and ZL
land. Finally, if Bill can get it operational, APRS VHF to HF with a Kam Plus.
VK6CO will help
with HF 30 meters with their HF APRS parameters.
You just might see Bill driving
out on the Ross Ice Sea as K7MT-7 in Ivan the Terra Bus. Pictures and
information will be available on Bill's home web page at:
http://www.mt.net/~k7mt
QSL is via K1IED Larry who has done a terrific job with the QSL cards from
Excel spread sheets sent to him weekly from McMurdo.
ANS thanks Andrew, VK4TEC, for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.06
Satellite Shorts From All Over
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.06
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.06
+ The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has made available a free
astronomy site that allows you to zoom in on galactic images right
from your personal computer. Check out the GigaGalaxy Zoom site:
http://www.gigagalaxyzoom.org/W.html - the zoomable images are
tagged in the red boxed areas of the main image.
+ Lance Collister, W7GJ released a new version of GJTRACKER (v2.0.3)
at http://bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/GJTRACKER.zip If you have already
installed GJTRACKER on your computer, all you need is to replace
the application file http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/GJTRACKER.exe
+ NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html will carry
the video of the LCROSS mission as it flies through the plume of
lunar debris when the upper stage of a Centaur rocket will purpose-
fully crash into the crater Cabeus near the south pole of the moon.
Coverage begins at 1030 UTC on October 9. Mission information is
available at: http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/observation/amateur.htm
+ Video replay of the Soyuz launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome:
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/30/soyuz-launch-video/
+ The October 1 ARISS School Contact with Ciencia Viva Museum in
Lisbon, Portugal was a success. A video is at :
http://www.cvtv.pt/imagens/index.asp?id_tag=15&id_video=408
+ Here's a correction in regards to last week's report about George
attaining 225 grids on his VUCC. George's correct callsign is
WA5KBH.
[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]
/EX
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-277.07
ARISS Statuts - 28 September 2009
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 277.07
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
October 4, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-277.07
1. Upcoming School Contacts
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been
scheduled for Sint-Michielscollege Brasschaat vzw (SMCB) in Brasschaat, Belgium
on Wednesday, October 7 at 10:20 UTC. Visits to space and science museums are
among the science activities planned for the children. Guest speakers will
include a representative from Verhaert Space
Systems and Dirk Frimout, Belgiums
first astronaut.
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been
scheduled with the National Planetarium in Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan,
Malaysia on Thursday, October 8 at 09:34 UTC. The contact will occur as part of
the National Space Challenge, a program that was
created in an effort to instill
the talents and desire towards the understanding
of space in primary school aged
children. Sixteen schools will participate.
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been
scheduled for Belmont Elementary School in Langley, British Columbia, Canada on
Friday, October 9 at 20:20 UTC. Students will complete projects with a Mission
Control theme and the Langley Amateur Radio Association (L.A.R.A.) will work
with the school to organize this event.
2. ARISS Contact Between De Winne and Vrij Technisch Instituut Sint-Lucas
An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact took place
on Tuesday, September 22. Students from Vrij Technisch Instituut Sint-Lucas in
Oudenaarde, Oost ­ Vlaanderen, Belgium posed 20 questions to Frank De Winne,
ON1DWN. An audience of 300 students and teachers were present as well as
television, radio and newspaper reporters. The antennas used for the contact as
well as a UPS device were constructed by the students.
3. Barratt and HMS Beagle Project Connect via ARISS
On Tuesday, September 22, the HMS Beagle Project in Parati, Brazil participated
in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact via
ground station K6DUE in Maryland. Approximately sixty students were present and
watched as classmates asked ten questions of Mike Barratt, KD5MIJ. The project
(which aims to rebuild the ship that carried Darwin around the world) and NASA
have signed an International Space Act Agreement, with Barratt as the initiator
and main connection on the NASA side of the project. The project will unite ISS
astronaut photography with ocean surface water
and other biological and physical
samples taken by the crew of the new Beagle.
4. ARISS Contact with Cedarview Middle School
Students attending Cedarview Middle School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact
on Thursday, September 24. Astronaut Robert
Thirsk, VA3CSA answered 20 questions
put to him by the students. The school principal commented on the contact, I
have never seen this kind of quiet on students at a school wide event before.
CTV Ottawa and other local media provided news coverage.
5. Garfield Elementary, WHEELS and ARISS Team up to Talk about Space
Garfield Elementary School students in Boise, Idaho participated in an Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Thursday, September
24 via telebridge station W6SRJ in California. Students visited the NASA
Exploration Experience traveling exhibit on display at the Idaho Historical
Museum to learn about space exploration and its benefits. Students were able to
ask 6 questions of Astronaut Mike Barratt, KD5MIJ during the 9 minute pass. The
event was well attended by youth, teachers and parents. Students were also
observing the contact at the W6SRJ ground station
- two were students from Santa
Rosa Junior College and another student was visiting from a local K-12 school.
Media coverage included three television stations
and the audio was fed into the
EchoLink AMSAT and JK1ZRW servers.
6. Thirsk Speaks with Japanese Students via ARISS Contact
On Saturday, September 27, students from Houya Elementary School in Nishitokyo,
Japan participated in an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
(ARISS) contact. Astronaut Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA
answered 15 questions posed by
the students. An audience of approximately 250
was present for the contact. News
coverage was provided by two magazines and an FM radio station.
7. ISS SSTV Active
Gennady Padalka, RN3DT activated the MAI-75 experiment onboard the ISS on
Thursday and Friday, September 24 and 25 from approximately 1000-1600 UTC. Slow
Scan Television (SSTV) images of Earth were downlinked to ground stations,
including one at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI).
8. Astronaut Training Status
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell, KF5DBF was given an overview session on the Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program this past week.
Caldwell is scheduled to fly with Expedition 23 in April 2010.
9. AMSAT Symposium, ARISS Ops Meeting
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) Symposium will be held on
Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11 at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel
at the Baltimore Washington Airport in Maryland. Several ARISS (Amateur Radio
on the International Space Station) and ARISSat-1 presentations will be given
and a demo of ARISSat-1 is planned. To view a list of these presentations, go
to: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2009/Presentations.php
The ARISS Operations team will hold a meeting after the symposium on Sunday,
October 11.
[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]
/EX
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's
Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project
Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits. Application forms are
available from the AMSAT Office.
73,
This week's ANS Editor,
Lee McLamb, KU4OS
ku4os at amsat dot org